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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-03-14 SSC MinutesCITY OF CHUI.A VISTA REGULAR MEETING OF THE SUSTAINABILITY COMMISSION Meeting Minutes March 14, 2022, 5:00 p.m. City Hall, Bldg. #C, Conference Room B-111 276 Fourth Avenue, Chula Vista Present: Commissioner Baugh, Commissioner Guevara-Gluyas, Vice Chair Korgan, Commissioner Richeson, Commissioner Rodriguez, Commissioner Legaspi, Chair Matthias Also Present: Chief Sustainability Officer Gakunga, Environmental Sustainability Manager Wisniewski, Environmental Services Manager Medrano, Secretary Rodriguez, Karina Lafarga Others Present Deputy City Attorney Silva and Conservation Specialist Downs 1. CALL TO ORDER A regular meeting of the Sustainability Commission of the City of Chula Vista was called to order at 5:13 p.m. in Conference Room B-111 located in Building C, City Hall 276 Fourth Avenue, Chula Vista California. 2. ROLL CALL Secretary Rodriguez called the roll. 3. CONSENT CALENDAR (Items 3.1-3.2) Moved by Commissioner Baugh Seconded by Vice Chair Korgan 1 Commission approved the consent calendar, pending the correction to the Chair's last name and date mentioned under her comment as March and not April. Yes (6): Commissioner Baugh, Commissioner Guevara-Gluyas, Vice Chair Korgan, Commissioner Rodriguez, Commissioner Legaspi, and Chair Matthias Abstain (1): Commissioner Richeson Result:Carried (6 to 0) 3.1 Approval of Meeting Minutes Commission approve the minutes 3.2 WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS Commission approve the absences 4. PUBLIC COMMENTS No public comments received 5. PRESENTATIONS 5.1 SANDAG'S 2021 REGIONAL PLAN Principal Regional Planner Fa'aola shared SANDAG's 2021 Regional Plan. The plan is a thirty year outlook of long range planning to really set the blueprint for what and how our regional growth from the transportation network to also setting in place some of the policies and programs that are being planned for the region. A different approach was used for this plan and it used a lot of areas to make the decisions, understanding where people are going and coming from. There were three goals that had to be achieved one, the need to work to reduce congestion second, improving social equity and lastly state and federal mandates that are required to achieve the regional plan. Also, the State of California Air Resources Board asked the San Diego region to look at how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nineteen percent. In order to achieve the goals Fa'aola explained and introduced the "5 Big Moves'; which are complete corridors, mobility hubs, transit leap, flexible fleets, and the next operating system, OS. She continued by sharing a map of the South Bay and that shows the 5 big moves and where they are geographically. Next in her presentation she explained how SANDAG plays a role in bringing housing and mobility options together. SANDAG has identified in their plan a housing incentive 2 program, the Board of Directors approved an allocation of funding for jurisdictions that apply to receive money through the housing acceleration program and Chula Vista received such funding. SANDAG is also looking at different ways of how to put some of the money that the state is providing and give that at the regional level and create some guidelines that are in support of the Sustainable Community Strategy within the regional plan and then pass that along to the local jurisdictions to help implement their housing elements. Currently there is $3.6 billion worth of programs within the plan that help reduce GHG and with the plan there was a reduction of GHG by 28% .In conclusion Fa'aola stated that there was an effort put into the plan to really focus on building and making better what we currently have and conserving our natural habitat or agriculture. Commissioners had questions regarding an overlap with current infrastructure, public transportation and if future developments and population growth were taken into consideration under this plan, 5.2 SAN DIEGO COMMUNITY POWER RESIDENTAL ENROLLMENT UPDATE Sustainability Specialist Downs provided an update on the residential enrollment for San Diego Community Power as it is currently in it's third phase. There are five jurisdictions that are in the JPA, City of Chula Vista, Encinitas, Imperial Beach, La Mesa and City of San Diego with County of San Diego and National City joining next year. San Diego Community Power provides an opportunity to choose who procures your energy or electricity, SDG&E still delivers the energy or electricity through their electrics distribution system. Downs shared San Diego Community Power values which include choice, gives residents and businesses a choice for the first time in who to receive electricity from, SDCP is local, open and accountable, clear path to 100% renewable energy by 2035 or sooner and striving for equity. Next successes from 2021 were shared, SDPC transitioned from planning mode to fully operational service provider in the last 12 months, it launched municipal, commercial and industrial service in March and June of 2021 and it signed four long-term power purchase agreements with leading renewable energy providers to bring new generation and resiliency to the energy grid. Residents and business that sign up with SDCP will continue to receive their energy bill from SDG&E they will just see an additional line that says CCA electric generation. Downs next shared what the mailers promoting the program look like and upcoming community events where SDCP will be participating to promote and provide more information. The presentation continued with Carolyn 3 Scofield with San Diego Community Power sharing the Community Power Plan. Scofield went over the goals and objectives and the plan development process. The plan includes a community needs assessment to help determine community needs and programs. She concluded the presentation by sharing the decision framework and the plan that will be organized into a coherent framework to allow for consistent analysis and calculations of costs, benefits and measurements of effectiveness and success. Commissioners had question related to receiving incentives and rebates from SDPC like those previously or currently issued by SDG&E. One public comment was received. 6. ACTION ITEMS 6.1 APPROVE LETTER TO CITY COUNCIL RECOMMENDING CITY STAFF WORK WITH REPUBLIC SERVICES ON A LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR CITY OWNED PROPERTY LOCATED NEXT TO THE LANDFILL THAT WOULD FACILITATE THE OPERATIONS OF A PLASTICS TRANSFORMATION PLANT Commissioner Richeson brought up the fact that the action item is not what was requested as the commission did not request a Republic Services agreement for the property. He mentioned that what is being requested via the letter is for the city to develop a program like the one presented by Enerra. He is requesting that a motion be made to accept the letter. Sustainability Specialist Downs requested an inclusion of greenhouse gas impact be included in the letter. Richeson mentioned that the process is not incineration of trash and Enerra is saying it's a net negative energy budget, because you're producing less virgin oil to produce the same diesel. You are taking already used plastics converting natural oil which is less virgin oil. Commissioner Legaspi raised the following question to staff, if not this project then what? He is aware that the plastics are ending up in the landfill and in a tour of Republic Services a statement of needing help with the plastics was made. A statement was made that Republic liked Enerra's idea and there is a need for it and we don't have anything in the region to handle this problem. Commissioner Legaspi continued by mentioning that since he has been part of the commission he has requested a report for the plastics and if staff can't tell him where the plastics are going and it makes him believe they are ending up in the landfill therefore he would like to see this proposal explored by the city because nobody has come up with any alternative to this. Chair Matthias mentioned that there are technologies out there that need to be El explored to make a difference and make an impact. Commissioner Baugh suggested that the commission recommend to council to direct staff to research the cost of benefits of this program to make sure it's what we really want to engage in, an environmental impact report. In conclusion the commission would like to see something addressing the issue of all the waste plastic and are recommending to council to look and investigate to see if Enerra would be a great to work with the plastics and to have an alternative way of disposing of plastics versus ending up in the landfill. Per staffs request, six public comments were received via email in opposition. Moved by Vice Chair Korgan Seconded by Commissioner Richeson Motion was made to submit memo as it was written to City Council. Yes (6): Commissioner Baugh, Vice Chair Korgan, Commissioner Richeson, Commissioner Rodriguez, Commissioner Legaspi, and Chair Matthias Abstain (1): Commissioner Guevara-Gluyas Result:Carried (6 to 0) OTHER BUSINESS 7. STAFF COMMENTS Sustainability Specialist Downs shared a reminder of the upcoming South Bay Earth Day event that is taking place on Saturday, April 9th at Memorial Park, 373 Park Way, Chula Vista. Chief Sustainability Officer Gakunga provided an update on the city's waste reduction strategy, Waste Zero Plan. He gave a reminder to commissioners who are in the Zero Waste Single Use Committee reply to Manuel's email regarding availability for an upcoming meeting. He continued by sharing that Manuel and his team are working on visiting commercial and multifamily sites to instruct residents on the organics waste collection program. Gakunga asked commissioners to please share with their networks the Sustainability Champion Awards as no nominations have been submitted. He concluded by sharing that there was a kickoff event for the Chula Vista Community Shuttle and they can start ordering the vehicles as well as the ADA van. 61 Deputy City Attorney Silva started by giving an update on increasing commission membership. Commission has shared interest in adding a high school age or college student as a member and Silva looked at other jurisdictions as well as the city and it is allowed for younger aged people to participate in hearings or participate as commission members, so he believes this could be done for the Sustainability Commission but not without a couple of limitations. One of them being that a board member has to be a qualified elector, which means they have to be of voting age, a solution would be to have the seat be for an ex officio member without the ability to vote and only provide insight. In order to do this a ordinance amendment to change the number of members in commission would have to be submitted and approved by council. He proposed that in the next meeting he would come back with a draft ordinance so that the process could get started. He continued by providing information on the communications policy and how to figure out a way to move things quicker, but we are bound by the Brown Act. He went over the noticing timeframe, for a regular meeting it is 72 hours and for a special meeting it is 24 hours. If a commissioner is going to speak on behalf of the commission it has to be done by conducting a vote to elect the commissioner to speak. The chair can direct staff to add items to the agenda outside of a meeting, and a commission member can ask the chair to place items on the agenda on their behalf and that is at the chairs discretion. A commissioner could request an item be placed on the agenda during a meeting and would have to be approved by a majority vote. Silva concluded by explaining how an item gets placed on the City Council agenda. The City Manager controls the agenda and the City Clerk prepares the agenda for the routing procedure where different people approve it. 8. CHAIR'S COMMENTS Chair Matthias started by thanking staff for putting together the calendar for future meetings. She stated that she would like to add Republic Services to the April agenda as she would like to see where things are as Republic Services is not abiding with the contract with their diversion rates. The chair mentioned she had recently visited the site and they are still not receiving any green waste or any food scraps and she believes that is a serious problem. She also asked if residents had received the containers for their kitchen and requested a timeline of what is happening with Republic Services. Next she shared that on March 26, Sustainable Communities will be having a clean-up event from Second Avenue to the Sweetwater River channel and concluded by giving an update on the rescue crew from South Youth for Sustainable Future as with their efforts they rescued 886 pounds of food which is being distributed all throughout Chula Vista. 8.1 CALENDAR FOR FUTURE MEETINGS 9. COMMISSIONERS' COMMENTS Commissioner Legaspi thanked everyone present in the meeting as the emergency declaration was approved unanimously by council. He requested if the Doodle survey for meeting availability could be send out again as some commissioners did not receive or missed the email. Legaspi also asked a question about the nomination and voting links for the Sustainability Champion Awards. Commissioner Richeson shared an updated from the Wildlife Advisory Group (WAG) as they went over the Sweetwater Park final design which is now complete and should be adopted within the next month or so with funding still up in the air as they never received grant money but are borrowing money from the bonds that are being issued by the city. The meeting was adjourned at 7:51 p.m. Minutes prepared by: Monica Rodriguez, Secretary IwNi.n • - - 7